2 Great Alternatives to Memory

Looking for some games to get your brain working? Marbles: The Brain Store provided samples of two memory-based games. Click through to read about some memory games you’ll actually enjoy playing with your kids.

This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be missing content or contain faulty links. Contact wiredlabs@wired.com to report an issue.

Here are a couple of games that Marbles: The Brain Store sent me to try out. Pengoloo is a cute memory game for young kids with little wooden penguins and eggs. The Magic Labyrinth is a very fun game that uses marbles and magnets to simulate invisible walls.

Overview:Pengoloo is a memory game for little kids—the wooden penguins hide colored eggs, and the goal is to find the eggs that match the colors rolled on the dice.

Players: 2 to 4 players

Ages: 4 and up

Playing Time: 10 to 15 minutes

Retail: $24.99

Rating: Eggs-cellent. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)

Who Will Like It? If you’re tired of just playing Memory with your little ones, this is a fun alternative with somewhat different gameplay.

Pengoloo set up. Photo: Jonathan Liu

Components:

12 wooden penguins, 12 wooden eggs (in six colors), four wooden iceberg scoring boards, 2 colored dice. All of the components are wooden, and the penguins are really cute. The eggs are sort of gumdrop-shaped so they sit up under the penguins. I did find it a little tricky to shuffle the penguins around (with eggs inside) without knocking them over, but if you’re playing with young kids you won’t need to do a whole lot of mixing anyway.

Gameplay:

It’s pretty simple: cover the eggs, mix them up, and then take turns rolling the dice and looking for the matching eggs. When you find a match, you claim the penguin and the egg and place them on your iceberg. First to six wins (and if you run out, then highest number wins).

The one twist I should point out is that if you match both colors, you get another turn. Where it gets tricky is when both eggs of a color have already been claimed. In that case, you can uncover eggs on the other players’ icebergs as well. You won’t be able to take their penguins, but you can shoot for an extra turn.

The rules also suggest variations in which you can steal penguins and eggs from other players, for older kids.

Conclusion:

I’ve played this a few times with my kids and it was pretty fun—the little wooden penguins are certainly more fun to play with than just flipping over cards for Memory, and I actually found that I had trouble remembering myself where eggs were—especially the ones that had already been claimed. I like that you can check under penguins that other players have taken, because it means that just because it’s been claimed doesn’t mean you can forget where it went.

The kids also like just playing with the penguins as toys, too. And since there are two of each color, you could (if desired) scrap the dice and scoring icebergs and just look for matching pairs.

If you’ve got young kids and you need a simple game for them, Pengoloo is a good addition to your library.

Wired: Cute and nicely crafted wooden pieces; fun twist on Memory.

Tired: Penguins can be hard to mix up without tipping over and revealing the eggs.

Overview:The Magic Labyrinth uses a clever board and magnets to simulate invisible walls in a labyrinth. Players move about, collecting the magic symbols while trying to avoid the hidden walls.

Players: 2 to 4 players

Ages: 6 and up

Playing Time: Roughly 20 minutes

Retail: $29.99

Rating: Great—and not just for little kids.

Who Will Like It? Though it’s rated for 6 and up, this game, like The Amazeing Labyrinth, is one that parents won’t mind playing as well. If you like clever uses of magnets, you’ll probably like The Magic Labyrinth.

The Magic Labyrinth pawns have magnets, which hold the marbles beneath the board. Photo: Jonathan Liu

Theme:

The story here is that the big wizards like to play pranks on the little wizards by creating invisible walls—and the board does give a magical feeling of invisible walls. As for why little wizards are running around looking for magic symbols, well … okay, that’s harder to explain.

Components:

The game comes with four chunky wooden pawns (with magnets inside), four metal balls, a wooden die (which only goes from 1 to 4), 24 magic symbol chips (cardboard punch-outs), 24 wooden walls and cloth bag for the symbols. The box itself also serves as a crucial part of the board.

The board is very cleverly designed: the black plastic base has four wells which direct dropped marbles to the four corners, where there is an opening. On top of that is a cardboard grid with holes—this is where the wooden walls are placed. Finally, on top of all that is the board itself, which covers up the walls entirely.

The pawns are placed in the corners, with the metal balls underneath. As you move the pawns around, when you encounter a wall you’ll feel the click and then hear the marble drop down.

Gameplay:

As you can see in the top photo, the wooden walls can be arranged however you like—there are two suggested layouts in the instructions but you can basically do whatever you like as long as each square has at least one open side. (For younger kids, you don’t need to use all of the walls, either.)

At the beginning of the game, one magic symbol is drawn from the bag and placed on its matching spot on the board. Players take turns rolling the die and attempting to get to the symbol. If you hit a wall and lose the marble, then you head back to your starting corner. Each time a symbol is collected, another one is drawn from the bag and placed on the board.

The first person to collect five symbols wins.

Conclusion:

The construction of the game is ingenious, and the customizable maze makes it great for replayability and also adjustable levels of difficulty. Even for adults it can be quite difficult to remember exactly where walls were—and if you’re traveling into unknown territory, you just have to cross your fingers and take a guess. The rules state that you’re not allowed to “test” for walls—you just have to pick a direction and move swiftly. However, when we play with our kids we let them feel around if they want, just to give them a bit of a handicap.

There’s one weakness, in my opinion, which can be easily overcome with a house rule. The fact that everyone is going for the same symbol means that it’s quite possible for one player to be much closer to the target than everyone else. And if you draw a symbol that somebody is already standing on, they get that one for free. I prefer the way Amazeing Labyrinth works, where each person has a target number of symbols and must reach them all in the correct order to win. There’s still luck involved in the placement, but at least there’s more of a chance that your route will take you all over the board, rather than just collecting the ones that happen to be near you.

Either way, though, The Magic Labyrinth is a clever idea and the execution is fantastic. It’s no wonder that this won the prestigious Kinderspiel des Jahres (Children’s Game of the Year) in 2009.

Here’s The Thing With Ad Blockers

We get it: Ads aren’t what you’re here for. But ads help us keep the lights on. So, add us to your ad blocker’s whitelist or pay $1 per week for an ad-free version of WIRED. Either way, you are supporting our journalism. We’d really appreciate it.